Creating interior support structures with Lightweight Voronoi Scaffold

Abstract

Nowadays product designers have possibilities to design complex geometries, since for instance with additive manufacturing, there is less technological limits then before. However, besides that they have geometric freedom, it is essential to pay attention to engineering aspects, such as efficient material usage, stiffness and so on. This article is dealing with internal support structures and introduces a new lattice, called Lightweight Voronoi Scaffold. The scaffolds as 3-dimensional structures are well known in numerous fields of science. These structures provide mechanical stiffness for bones and place for biomolecules as well. The aim of this research was testing this new structure in case of complex geometry with multiaxial load case. Therefore, the arrangement of Voronoi scaffold is not regular, random sampling-based Monte Carlo method was applied in order to provide proper distribution of generation of geometric instances. Although the random point seed generates a high number of improper geometries, the remaining ones always include notable solutions. Lightweight Voronoi Scaffold was compared to some common regular beam lattices, and results shown that Lightweight Voronoi Scaffold was lighter in each case, that may open new opportunities in the field of additive manufacturing.

Investigating the Impact of Productivity on Surface Roughness and Dimensional Accuracy in FDM 3D Printing

“…In this case, the angle between the planes during exporting was set to 3°, and a tolerance of 0.05 mm was applied. Selecting the appropriate structure is crucial as it can influence not only the geometric dimensions but also the material properties (Piros and Trautmann, 2023). The printing process involved using a gyroid-type fill with a density of 30%.…”

Two conjectures on 3D Voronoi structures: a toolkit with biomedical case studies

“…The emergence of additive manufacturing has extended the application of Voronoi tessellation from mere analysis to the generation of 3D scaffolds, i.e., Voronoi structures with mesh wrapped around the wireframes. Voronoi scaffolds have been 3D printed as supports for hollow objects 19 , interlocking architecture 20 , optimal lightweight structures [21][22][23] , patient specific bone scaffolds 24,25 , for surgical practice 26 , for patient education of upcoming procedures 27 , regenerative medicine and wound healing techniques 28 , implantable drug delivery 29 and T-cell culturing environments 14 .…”

“…The wide application of 3D Voronoi structures in the biomedical, architectural and design fields stems from their light-weight abilities, customizable properties and the topological similarities they share with the various environments listed above. Voronoi structures are highly cost-effective in 3D printing as they require less material when compared to regular lattice structures while supporting equivalent weight loads 22 . Their customizable pore diameters and variable porosities also make 3D Voronoi structures highly appealing porous structures for modelling various materials and environments 25 .…”

DESIGN PROCESS OF COMPLEX PRODUCT SHAPE WITH LATTICE VORONOI'S STRUCTURE USING CAx TOOLS

“…The product designers today have the possibilities to design complex geometries which can be produced with AM technology, considering there are less technological limits than before. In the research [9], Piros and Trautmann presented a new structure with complex geometries called Lightweight Voronoi Scaffold which is tested with multiaxial load case. The arrangement of Voronoi scaffold is not regular, random sampling-based Monte Carlo method is applied in order to provide proper distribution of generation of geometric instances.…”